The Bride Given to the Son

The Bride Given to the Son April 27, 2013

 

There is a poem where God the Father and God the Son are having a conversation.

“My Son,” states God the Father, “I wish to give you a bride who will love you.  Because of you she will deserve to share our company and eat at our table.”

The Son replies, “I am very grateful.  I will show my brightness to the bride you give me, so that by it she may see how great my Father is.  I will hold her in my arms and she will burn with your love, and with eternal delight she will exalt your goodness”.

After God the Son accepts the Father’s proposal to give him a bride, God the Father creates the universe, “Let it be done, then, said the Father, for your love has deserved it.  And by these words the world was created.”

The great Spanish mystic Saint John of the Cross presents the whole creation as the bride of Jesus Christ.  The bride Jesus Christ has always loved from the beginning of time, the bride for which he willingly gave up his life, in order to make her new.

Jesus Christ comes to us as a groom to his bride, full of a passion and love that transform us, he comes willing to give of himself without measure, willing to fulfill us and to satisfy us.

“Behold, I make all things new” proclaims the one sitting on the throne in the Apocalypse of Saint John as he looks at the new heavens and the new earth.  This is Jesus looking at his bride, all of creation, and making all things in her new by restoring her to grace by offering her salvation.

Behold, I make all things new, proclaims Jesus Christ has he hangs from the cross and gazes upon his mother.  Being the first one to receive the salvation of Christ, he sees in the Virgin the wondrous result of his work of salvation.  As he looks into her eyes, he sees the crowning of his efforts; in her eyes he sees the whole of humanity made new.

Behold, I make all things new, proclaims Jesus Christ as the stone rolls away from the entrance of the tomb.  Having vanquished and transformed death by his own dying and remaining in the tomb for three days, Jesus forever makes new our relationship with death, humanity’s ancient foe.

Behold, I make all things new, proclaims Jesus Christ every time bread and wine are transformed into his precious body and blood.  As the Word created the universe out of nothing, separated water from land and the earth from the skies, the Word of God transforms creation itself, simple bread and wine, into his very self in order to make true His words, “God’s dwelling is with the human race.”

Behold, I make all things new, proclaimed Jesus Christ on the day of our baptism, which is the day we received the forgiveness of our sins and became part of the church, the day we became part of the Bride of Christ.

Behold, I make all things new, proclaims Jesus Christ every time we receive the forgiveness of our sins through absolution in the sacrament of reconciliation.  As when God said “let there be light” and there was light, when God says “I absolve you from your sins” our sins are forgiven.  We are made new by the grace of God.

The whole creation prepares as a bride to meet the bridegroom.  As a bride anxiously processes down the aisle towards the groom, we too are in a procession or pilgrimage towards Jesus the bridegroom.  As the eyes of the bride are fixed on the eyes of the groom, we too must keep our eyes fixed on Christ the bridegroom.

Though unworthy, the bridegroom himself makes us worthy by washing us in his sacred blood.  It is the love of the groom for his bride that transforms her.  It is the love of Christ that transforms us from sinners into children of God. Christ glorifies us in the love of God the Father and we are able to burn with the love of God and exalt in his goodness.

May Christ help us accept this great love and share it with others to make all things new.  We are to love as he loves us – may he grant us the grace to do so.

[Picture: “The Trinity” at the Church of the Gesu, Rome]

Pictures are mine, all rights reserved


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